AWEJ Vol.2 No.3 August 2011
pp. 168-174
Omani & Texan English: Common Threads
Baxter Jackson
University of Nizwa , Oman
Abstract
While seemingly dissimilar, Omani and Texan English (TXE) share common threads of
non-standardization in terms of pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and discourse. These
areas are highlighted to help teachers show students how to either side step these
stigmatizing characteristics of OE (Omani English) or embrace them as a show of
solidarity.
Key words: World Englishes, Omani English, identity, solidarity, non-standardization
Primary & Secondary Purposes
The primary purpose of this paper is to help establish and gain acceptance of Omani English as a
variety of World English in much the same way that Texan English is established and accepted as
a variety of Southern American English. A secondary purpose is to highlight the social, economic
and cultural implications of speaking a non-standardized dialect of English so that teachers can
better inform their students about making a choice between showing solidarity within their own
speech communities and finding acceptance within the standardized community of English
speakers.
One Major Assumption
The Sultanate of Oman (where I’ve been teaching for the last four years) has its own variety of
World English called Omani English (OE). The major assumption behind this paper (and
supported in scholarly research) is that once non-standardized forms of English become
acceptable in a particular place with a certain group of people who share similar traits, a new
world English is born (Wierzbicka 2006; Kachru 1984; Upton 2010). OE, as one might surmise,
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is distinctly different from my own variety of Texan English (TXE) in terms of pronunciation,
grammar, vocabulary and discourse.
Pronunciation
Texas Vowel Movements
In Texas, everything is bigger and longer, vowels included. Vowel movements are drawn out like
long and slow like a lazy summer afternoon in Texas. Dog, for example is often pronounced in
Texas as [dawg] with an up-gliding diphthong as noted by Tillery & Bailey (2005) in their article,
Do you speak American? Their report on this southern variety of English takes heed of how the
off-glide of /ai/ in words like ride /rajd/ and right /rajt/ make these words in Texas sound more
like [raijd] and [raijt] respectively. The off-gliding /ai/ is but the tip of the vocalic longhorn so to
speak.
In the Lone Star State, the tense/lax distinction of vowels before /l/ is disappearing. For example,
pool /pul/ and pull /pʊl/ are now homophones. Feel/fill /fil/& /fIl/ and sale/sell /sel/ & /sɛl/ are
fixing to join the ranks of homophony as well (more about fixing to in the section on grammar).
Caught /kawt/ & cot /kat/ are but another example of vowel merging that is characteristic of TXE
as are pen /pɛn/ & pin /pIn/ which are both now pronounced identically (Bailey & Tillery, 2005).
Our tendency to linger over our vowels and lax what should be tense has sometimes been
interpreted as slowness of thought by those outside of this particular speech community – as if
slow talking means slow thinking. The slow rate of speech and the lingering over vowels are two
reasons why TXE is considered to be a non-standard variety of English with all the negative
concomitant repercussions (Nero, 2004). To sidestep the social stigma of speaking a non-standard
variety of English, native Texans such as myself often become (out of economic and professional
necessity) bi-dialectical – one dialect for home and another for the office (Schumann, 1974).
Very Consonantal
As far as the rendering of consonants is concerned, Texan cadence is distinctive there as well.
The alveolar approximant /r/ for example, in words like forty /fɔrti/ and four /fɔr/ often drop-off
the phonetic map and reappear in words you wouldn’t normally expect to see them like in warsh
[wɑrʃ] (Labov, W., Ash, S., Boberg, C. 2006) This dropping of the r’s is, according to
Schonmweitz’s (2001) article on gender and pronunciation in the American South, known as a
constricted post-vocalic /r/ and is yet another nonstandard phonological feature of TXE that
separates us from Standard Speakers of English.
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OE Vowels: A Trinity
In Oman, on the other hand, the vowels are neither longer nor bigger. Most of the time, they’re
just not there at all (in writing, that is). This is because in Arabic, there are essentially three short
vowels – damma /u/, fatha /a/ and kasra /e/ and three long versions of the same. These short
vowels are not even part of the actual Arabic alphabet and are only written in early literacy
development stages. Nevertheless, there is one ‘pure’ vowel, alif (‫ )ا‬and two semi-vowels wow (‫)و‬
and ya (‫( )ي‬word initially, they are semi-vowels and between consonants, they are long vowels)
that do manifest themselves in the orthography of the language and as such continue to be written
after early literacy.
Compare the Arabic vowels that are actually written and the unseen (but omnipresent) vocalic
trinity of damma, fatha and kasra with the twelve simple vowels and the eight diphthongs in
Texan English and you begin to get an idea of how a speaker of Omani English could be
stigmatized for their lack of vowel variety. This vacuity of vowels in their pronunciation is often
interpreted by addressees (and speakers) as boredom. In other words, Omani speakers of English
tend to use only the vowels from their first language (Arabic) in their second language (English).
To a native speaker of English whose stock of vowels is much more varied, using the same three
vowels all the time can sound like boredom. Maybe this is why my students often tell me,
‘Teacher, I feel boring.’ So as Texans are ostracized for our long vowel movements so are
Omanis for their dearth of vowel variety.
The most salient pronunciation feature of Omani English is also the most distinguishable
phonological characteristic of Gulf Arabic - the lack of a distinction between j & g (/dʒ/ and /g/).
Job, for example, is often pronounced and spelled gob [gob]. College can become collej [kɑlɪg]
and technology, technolojy [tɛknɑlɪgi]. /dʒ/ and /g/ are used interchangeably as if they are
allophones of the same phoneme. It is not uncommon to hear from Omani students, ‘Teacher, I
want a jood gob.’
Another phonological factor stacked against the speakers of Omani English is the absence of the
voiced/voiceless distinction that exists in Texan English (as well as with most other varieties of
English). Because this distinction is phonemic in English, i.e., meaning hinges on upon it (think
of the difference between pat and bat); it is one of the first features of Omani English that
distinguishes a speaker as such. This often results in a pronunciation issue; instead of asking for a
Pepsi, a Bebsi is ordered. The predominantly Indian service industry has little trouble working
their way around this, however and they have actually left their own indelible mark on Omani
food, culture and grammar even that will be addressed in subsequent sections. The point is that
given the nature of daily interactions in Oman in English (Omani and Indian predominantly) there
is simply no communicative need to distinguish between /p/ and /b/. Thus, the non-standard
remains. Furthermore, as /b/ is phonetically very similar to /p/, Westerners have little difficulty in
meeting the communicative needs, i.e., the desire to understand and to be understood, of OE
speakers in terms of being empathetic, if not sometimes chuckling interlocutors.
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Grammar
Grammatical Curiosities
Grammatically speaking, TXE and OE both have non-standard forms. Take for example the
quasi-modal in Texas English, fixin, as in ‘I can’t shoot the breeze right now, ‘cause I’m fixin’ to
go see a man about a horse’ (meaning I can’t talk right now, I’ve got to pee). Fixin’ is a quasimodal in that with most modal verbs, the verb that follows is always in the base form. Fixin’, on
the other hand, always selects an infinitive as its’ constituent. What qualifies fixin’ for modal
status is that it expresses the mood of imminent possibility.
While there is no exact Omani equivalent of fixin, there are plenty of examples of non-standard
forms that are acceptable in the everyday parlance of the Sultanate (many of them the result of
sustained contact with Indian workers and Indian English teachers). If, as a second language
learner, your linguistic role model, your teacher speaks a certain type of English, for example,
Indian English then your English will
more than likely develop speech characteristics similar to the teachers’ example. In Omani
English, for example, instead of using the past tense to speak of past events, the present tense is
used in conjunction with a time marker, as in ‘Yesterday I am in Salalah.’ I’ve even heard native
speakers of English resort to this kind of linguistic simplification (myself included) to make
themselves understood when speaking to Omanis (Brulhart, 1986).
Omani speakers of English often find (as speakers of Indian English do) the stative verbs of TXE
to be as stiff as the brim of Stetson cowboy hat. Verbs that do not take the present continuous are
stiff in that they stay within certain tenses and aren’t as flexible as other verbs that can take any
verbal permutation. In OE, this lackadaisical view towards stative verbs is manifested in a
grammatical tendency to tack on –ing to verbs which normally don’t allow such suffixing.
Knowing, liking, loving, wanting and hating are often heard (and seen in student papers) to be as
much more progressive states than as we hear and see them in Texas.
While this certainly might strike you as grammatical abomination, we are in Texas, guilty of
similar crimes. Take for example our use of multiple modals as in ‘I can’t go today but I might
could go tomorrow.’ While technically incorrect, it is effective in expressing the dubiousness at
one’s ability to act in a certain way in a given situation. The perfective ‘done’ of TXE as in ‘I
done did it yesterday’ ain’t much to be proud of neither (although it is colorful and fun to use for
emphatic purposes).
While things are emphatically done in Texas, nothing gets done in Oman. Things are made. Pilots
make landings. Women make shopping and drivers make accidents. This is because the auxiliary
verb ‘do’ as it exists in English, does not exist in Arabic. This is why it’s so rare to hear it used in
Omani English even among Western educated Omani academics.
OE has not only done away with the extremely helpful ‘do’, it has also gotten rid of the beguiling
and antiquated noun classification scheme known as count and non-count nouns. Furniture,
luggage, water, rice, information, pretty much anythings and everythings that used to be
uncountable is now countable, even childrens. Advertisements, store signs and the local news
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networks provide evidence of the widespread acceptance of this linguistic variation within the OE
community.
Vocabulary
Culinary Lexicon
As far as vocabulary is concerned, Omani English and Texas English both share distinctive
features that reflect how they see the world (and their respective influences). In OE, the language
is peppered with, not surprisingly, Arabic and Indian words. In TXE, the lexicon is spiced up with
Spanish words.
Spanish has influenced the lexicon of Texas English in much the same way that Hindi has
influenced Omani English, especially in the realm of food. If not for the Mexicans, you wouldn’t
hear such things as frijoles, enchiladas, quesadillas and tacos rolling around on the tongues of so
many hungry Tejanos.
In Oman, on the other hand, it’s all about the Indian influence on the tongues of Omanis. Parrota,
dahl, briyani and masala dosa are widely heard (and eaten) across the Gulf countries. In fact, you
could rightly say that Indian food is the Mexican food of Arabia – cheap, fast and easy to come
by in much the same way that Indian labor is here and Mexican there.
The Arabic phrase insh’allah (God willing) is the Middle Eastern mentality with which most
Western foreigners develop a love/hate relationship. We hate it when we realize that it’s often
used as a ‘get out of jail free’ card and love it when we see that we can use it in the same way – to
‘pre-soften’ the blow to our interlocutor that we just might not do what we’re say we’re going to
do (if God isn’t willing, that is).
Just as everyone in Oman soon finds out what insh’allah can mean so do we in Texas know what
the Spanish word mañana means. Mañana is the Mexican equivalent of insh’allah. Literally it
means tomorrow and that’s often exactly what it means but it can be used in much the same way
as insh’allah – to postpone something for tomorrow (or until the person forgets) that you’d rather
not do at all.
Discourse
Public Discourse
Discourse in Texas sounds much like the way we talk – country. The speech normally reserved
for intimates often finds its way into public spheres, especially in small town Texas newspapers
according to Barbara Johnstone’s research, Sounding Country in Urbanizing Texas: Private
Speech in Public Discourse (1998).
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Johnstone found news articles in small town Texas to be moralistic, evaluative and sprinkled with
speech more characteristic of spontaneous storytelling that objective journalism. In other words,
the story was told much in the same way that it would be on somebody’s front porch over a glass
of iced tea. While public discourse in Texas differs in this respect from American mainstream
media, what’s consistent is the underlying assumption that the newspaper is a healthy place for
airing concerns and criticisms, something conspicuously absent in OE.
In Oman, public discourse is all about accumulating wasta (influence) and building family
stature. In this case, the country of Oman is analogous to a family with Sultan Qaboos as the
father figure. That’s why they’d just as soon shoot themselves in the foot as criticize their
motherland of Oman in a public sphere such as the newspaper.
Rampant self-censorship and front-page headlines detailing the list of countries HM (His
Majesty) Sultan Qaboos has sent ‘cables’ or greetings to are typical fare in the Times of Oman.
Small wonder the letters to the editor are chock full of outraged Omanis who see any sort of
criticism levied by foreigners as a personal insult. Public discourse is just not the place for trying
to implement change – it’s a place for solidifying what’s most important in Oman – family honor.
Conclusion
Two varieties of world Englishes, Omani and Texan English, have been compared and contrasted
along pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and discourse lines. While seemingly dissimilar, the
two offshoots have more in common than one would expect. The social, economic and cultural
implications of speaking a non-standardized dialect of English have been highlighted so that
teachers can better inform their students about making a choice between showing solidarity
within their own speech communities and finding acceptance within the standardized community
of English speakers. An essential part of our duty as Teachers of English as a Foreign Language
is making our students aware that our identity and the way others perceive us of is shaped almost
entirely by language.
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About the author
Baxter Jackson is an English Language Instructor at University of Nizwa. His research into
Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has appeared in ESL Magazine, Essential Teacher, the
Language Forum and the CATESOL Journal. When he's not teaching or researching he enjoys
writing about and exploring the Middle East.
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